Union officials for a Massachusetts healthcare workers union vented their frustrations over delays in Steward Health Care's bankruptcy proceedings.
In an Aug. 12 release, 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, which represents 3,000 Steward nurses, lamented the delays in the sale caused by a lack of a viable bid for new ownership over Holy Family Hospital in Haverhill (Mass.) and Holy Family Hospital in Methuen (Mass), which are covered under a single license, after a potential new owner altered its bid.
Holy Family in Haverhill would be the third Dallas-based Steward Health Care hospital in Massachusetts to face closure.
"The healthcare workers of 1199SEIU are angered by the reported breakdown in negotiations to transfer both campuses of Holy Family Hospital to a new owner," said 1199SEIU Vice President At-Large Filaine Deronnette in the release. "The fact that Apollo, Medical Properties Trust (MPT) and Steward Health Care would continue this sick game of financial brinksmanship, in an effort to squeeze every last dollar from hospitals that Steward and its financial backers have already wrung dry, is unconscionable."
The potential bidder was identified by "several parties" as Lawrence General Hospital, WHAV reported Aug. 10. The Haverhill campus serves a community of over 67,000 residents.
"I don't know what (the) LGH final bid included as the situation is very fluid, but I believe the Haverhill Campus of Holy Family is integral to the healthcare needs of the Merrimack Valley and should be included in LGH bid," state Sen. Barry Finegold told WHAV.
Bankruptcy Court Judge Christorpher Lopez is set to hold a hearing on Aug. 16 in Houston to approve the sale of six hospitals, with the fate of Holy Family Hospital in doubt.
Steward, which sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection May 6, has already received approval to close Boston-based Carney Hospital and Ayer, Mass.-based Nashoba Valley Medical Center by Aug. 31. The closures have been met with backlash by local and state lawmakers.
Steward and Lawrence General Hospital did not have a comment for Becker's regarding the potential closure.